The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1887-10-01
A Protectionist's Argument.

As long ago as August, 1856, Col. Robert
Beverly, of Virginia President of the
Farmers National Congress of the United
States, delivered before that body an ad
dress which dealt with the tariff in its rela-
tions to farmers. OF this Mr. F. Bassett
French, of Manchester, Va, has published
a pamphlet review, which is itself reviewed
by the Baltimore Manufacturers record.
The Record is devoted TO the booming of
new towns, and the printing OF advertise
ments for manufacturers of machinery is
probably the source of the principal part Of
its income 1t is, of course, an
advocate of the theory of pro
lection The pamphlet it reviews is written
ostensibly by recent convert TO that doc
trine, but in spite of the fact that the record
greedily swallows his arguments and state
ments of fact, it is almost impossible not TO
believe he is a disguised free trader who
wishes to make protectionist arguments
ridiculous. The Records extracts from Mr..
French's review are very long, but only one
or two points will be noticed.
Mr. French first objects to Col Beverly's
statement that the farmers form majority
of the voting population of the country, and
resorts TO the census reports and the returns
Of the last Presidential election TO prove
him wrong. His figures and his deductions
from them, lead to some peculiar results.
He first learns from the census that the
number of persons engaged in gainful work
was II, 81, O99, and that of these 1910, 493
were farmers. He then finds that the total
s,,s 81 L. 81 M f MI
be parcels this vote out among the different
classes as follows: Vote of farmers ,, 900, Cps,
Of other gainful workers 2,656J9j, of all
others sos, 995-majority against farm
ers S,35l ,425. 1t will be seen
that by Mr. French's method of calcu-
lation that rare man among US, the gentle
man of leisure, is several hundred thou
sand more numerous than all the far
mers and workers for gain put together
He must hide himself as cunningly as a fox
and only slip out TO vote for Presidents.
However this may be- the Record says
these figures expose the fallacy of Col. Bev-
erlys statement, and it may be said of them
that they are about as reliable as others en-
ployed to support the argument that high
tariff benefits the farmer.
Mr. French next ridicules the statement
that the outlook for the farming interests is
gloomy, and gives figures to show that it is
bright. While he was investigating, it is
strange he did not stumble across the fact
that the total agricultural wealth of the
country increased during the decade from
1850 to 1860 10l per cent; in
that from 1850 TO 1870 80
per cent, and from 1870 TO 1880 only 0 per
cent. Another fact he could have learned
in the same connection is that the agricul-
tural class, which represents about half
the population of the country, has of late
years advanced in wealth only about one
fourth as fast as the other half
A large part Of the article, including a
notwithstanding tabular statement, is de
voted to proving that farmers are protected
and the price of their products increased by
the import duty on grain, when an immense
surplus every year finds its market in
Europe The absurdity of this claim is APP
parent and is not made less plain by the
arguments used to show the contrary.